By Lisa de Moraes
Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Remember last week -- that age of innocence before the start of the writers' strike, when bright-eyed network suits clapped their little hands with glee at the prospect of the start of the November ratings sweeps? We miss last week.

Here's a look at its gold stars and timeouts:

WINNERS

Charlie Brown. Baldheaded boy scares up the week's top broadcast numbers among kid viewers and his biggest overall Halloween-special audience in four years -- more than 11 million viewers on Tuesday, nearly 4 million better than last October when his "Great Pumpkin" classic aired on a Friday.

Pats/Colts game. CBS's Sunday kinda-sorta prime-time football game (it ran 30 minutes into prime time) clocked nearly 34 million viewers -- the biggest regular season NFL game numbers in about two decades and the biggest audience on any network since the Academy Awards in February. With that boffo lead-in, "60 Minutes" posted its biggest audience in about two years -- more than 19 million viewers -- after which the season debut of "Amazing Race" logged its largest opening crowd yet -- nearly 14 million.

"The Simpsons Annual Treehouse of Horror." Nearly 12 million viewers caught the Fox animated comedy's annual Halloween episode, including its best younger demos in about four years.

"Dancing With the Stars." The competitors may be cursed, but the show is charmed, ratings-wise. Last week the ABC competition series scored more than 21 million viewers -- the second-biggest crowd of any program this season, behind only the 21.4 million who watched the season debut of "CSI." Competitor Marie Osmond this week lost her 90-year-old father; earlier she'd fainted on the live show. Competitor Jane Seymour last week left the show abruptly after being felled by food poisoning; she also was gone briefly from the competition when her 92-year-old mother died.

LOSERS

"Nip/Tuck." Moving the nip/tuckers to Los Angeles appears not to have wowed viewers, just 4.3 million of whom tuned in to the FX series' fifth-season debut -- a sharp decline compared with the 5.3 million who tuned in two seasons back.

"Cashmere Mafia." The Writers Guild strike's first scheduling victim. ABC gave an official "never mind" on its announced Nov. 27 debut date for this chick drama; it was to have opened right after the season finale of "Dancing With the Stars." Instead, ABC will squander the lead-in potential of that two-hour finale, moving it to 9-11 p.m., and kick off the evening with Charlie Brown's Christmas special.

"Heroes" last week scored its series low for the second week in a row -- 10.5 million viewers.

The week's 10 most watched programs, in order, were: ABC's Monday "Dancing With the Stars" and "Grey's Anatomy"; CBS's "60 Minutes" and "CSI"; ABC's Tuesday "Dancing With the Stars" and "Desperate Housewives"; Fox's "House"; NBC's Sunday football; and CBS's "NCIS" and "Criminal Minds."